


by any other name

by evanlinge



Series: a heart on the windowsill [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-09-23 18:29:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17085461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evanlinge/pseuds/evanlinge
Summary: There is a plant on Naruto's windowsill - it has eyes and tails and teeth.





	by any other name

There is a plant on Naruto’s windowsill, one made up of juicy green spikes that the Hokage tells him are full of healing gel: slice it open and pull out its insides to soothe any scratch or scrape. Naruto knows it is wasted on him – there’s no need to butcher its leaves over cuts that heal no matter how he picks at them, over bruises that vanish in minutes; he keeps it on the windowsill anyway, where it grows fat off Konoha’s vivid sunlight. Its spikes cast strange shadows on the walls in the late afternoon, like tails with teeth. He likes it, he thinks – beautiful things need no purpose.

 

* * *

 

In the summer when the days are long and there’s no Iruka-sensei waiting around every corner to pester him about this or that homework he’ll never turn in, Naruto turns his attentions on the plant. It looks glorious on its perch, unruly spikes stretching imperiously across every bit of space it can reach. The thing seems to come alive as Naruto prattles at it, leaves bobbing up and down with the breeze as if to shake its luscious green head at him. He thinks about naming it ‘ _Sasuke_ ’ but in the end he finds the idea of the Uchiha lurking in his window unpalatable; Naruto names it Nori, and hopes for the best.

 

* * *

 

Sometimes at night, Naruto imagines a face among Nori’s leaves, one that leers down at him in curious bemusement. Its eyes are framed by a halo of spikes, and its mouth quirks up, full and sly to reveal a row of too-sharp teeth. The thing is a plant, Naruto tells himself. (and perhaps, when Konoha is quiet and still, Naruto imagines there is someone else in the dark, camouflaged in Nori’s lush green blades, waiting patiently for Naruto to fall asleep. In the dark, Naruto imagines that Nori is wearing his face.)

 

* * *

 

In the languid heat of Konoha’s midsummer evenings, Naruto wonders if Nori is lonely up there, presiding over the messy apartment in the hours when Naruto goes about his daily mischief – the ritual of pranks and playful ANBU chases. (at least, Naruto finds them playful. The Hokage uses words like ‘vandalism’ and ‘roguery’, but Naruto thinks he can detect a thread of amusement waiting behind the old man’s pipe). Perhaps, Naruto thinks, he should find Nori a friend. Iruka-sensei had said that people work better with companionship, and Naruto imagines that might apply to plants too.

Of course, Nori has a companion in Naruto, who waters it and fusses over its great spikes when they droop, who is always brimming with over-blown tales of shenanigans to share, always ready to shift Nori’s potted throne this way or that to better catch the sun; but as much as Nori’s spikes might flutter like laughter when Naruto chatters at it, it never answers in a way he can understand. He should find Nori a friend, Naruto reasons, who can speak its language of shivering leaves, a bit of green to keep it company in the dark, when Naruto is asleep. (and perhaps, Naruto thinks, he’ll find Nori a friend who’s a little softer, a little rounder about the edges, with no spikes that seem like teeth or tails).

 

A week later Mr Ukki joins Nori on the windowsill.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> can't resist a plant origin story


End file.
